HoP 017 - Raphael Woolf on Socrates

An interview on the surprising comforts to be found in the philosophy of pessimism, focusing on Bayle but looking all the way forward to Schopenhauer. 

In the last of five episodes to celebrate reaching the episode 500 mark by looking at things he skipped in earlier series, Peter talks to Daniel Watson about philosophy in early medieval Ireland. 

In the fourth of five episodes to celebrate reaching the episode 500 mark by looking at things he skipped in earlier series, Peter talks to Ted Good about philosophy and the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism. 

In this episode, we discuss the life and death of Sokrates (ca. 470-399 BC), who is widely considered to be the father of Western philosophy, with in-depth overviews of Aristophanes' Clouds and Plato's dialogue Euthyphro, Apologia, Krito, and Phaido Show Notes: http://www.thehist ... Show More

<p>On the Platonic dialogue written around 380 BCE about an encounter between Socrates and one of the leading Sophists of his day.</p> <p>What is virtue ("the political art" according to Protagoras), and can it be taught? What are the relations of the various virtues to each othe ... Show More

Discussing Plato's Theatetus and Meno. 

Socrates was a famous opponent of the Sophists, the teachers of rhetoric instead of truth - and yet, in his legal defense, he employs the techniques of rhetoric and displays a mastery of oratory. In a society that distrusted irony and regarded it as a form of dishonesty, Socrates ... Show More

On Plato's mid-period dialogue from around 388 BCE. How do words relate to the things they represent? Socrates first argues that words represent things, and so doing etymology is a way of learning philosophical truths, then seemingly reverses himself. Get more at partiallyexamine ... Show More

On Plato's middle dialogue depicting the death of Socrates (390 BCE) depicting the death of Socrates. Should philosophers fear death? In the course of giving arguments for the immortality of the soul, we get an elaboration of the recollection theory of knowledge (from the Meno) i ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Plato's Crito and Phaedo, his accounts of the last days of Socrates in prison in 399 BC as he waited to be executed by drinking hemlock. Both works show Socrates preparing to die in the way he had lived: doing philosophy. In the Crito, Plato shows ... Show More